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WELCOME TO LINGUAPHILES & SESQUIPEDALIANS

LINGUAPHILES & SESQUIPEDALIANS is a group for people who love languages, words, and grammar.

The only requirement for joining this group is that you possess a modicum of interest in languages, etymology, grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation. You do not have to be erudite or scholarly; you do not have to be a linguist or grammarian. You just have to have the desire to learn new things about language, or share the knowledge you possess.

The purpose of this group will be to help us explore the diversity of language, hone our grammar and spelling skills, understand correct word usage, expand our vocabulary, explore language and word history, and find new ways to communicate.

How we talk about things is equally important as what we talk about. Language is a part of our thinking, speaking, and writing; it is mind, tongue, and hand. It is about how we relate to other people and understand the world around us. It is communication and the exchange of ideas. It is learning, empathy, history, and politics. It can persuade, disarm, conquer, cajole, unnerve, offend, shame, enrich, encourage, inspire, destroy, or sustain. It is all these things and more.

However, the emphasis of LINGUAPHILES & SESQUIPEDALIANS is not on writing and publication. If you are interested in these topics, please join the group ATHEIST WRITERS. That does not mean that you cannot ask questions about writing here, it is just that we are not trying to compete with the well-established writer's group. I simply recommend that you use your best judgment and post your discussion in the group that best fits the topic.

The focus here will obviously be on the English language, but it is not restricted to English only. Topics can include correct spelling and grammar issues, etymology, vocabulary and usage, language history and lexicography, dialects and idioms, trivia, and resources such as books and websites.

Plinius, your work with people amazes me; you have such an empathic understanding of your students. Your willingness to create and invent ways of teaching that gives understanding to people who would otherwise find life too great a challenge. You are my inspiration.

Two destroyed black lives and there are so many more. They tried their best against the odds and lost - we can only love them. Thanks for your story, Joan. I never mind the non-standard language, most of the time I get the meaning. You're right, once you get past the language difficulties you see the poetry.

When I taught in a poor neighbourhood of Rotterdam I got someone in my class who told me that she was too stupid to learn anything. I wanted to try anyway and found out that she was very dyslectic. From that moment I read all grammar and relevant info aloud, three times, and she got a much better hold on language. After some time she wanted to read aloud from the coursebook.. From the few words she could process well she made a story that was pure poetry...

Plinius, when I worked at Morning Star Boys' Ranch, one of my students was a black kid, about 14 years old. He spoke African-American Vernacular English or colloquially called Ebonics (a controversial term). Most working- and middle-class African Americans spoke or understand it.

Previously, I had taught for two years at Valley Green Housing Project in Washington, D.C., a project for the black single head of household mothers and their dependent children.

This Kid's every other word was fxxk or some other version of bodily functions. I had him write short stories about anything he wanted and after a few months, he began to like writing. His work was powerful and insightful about being a black kid and the anger he carried against the systems. His mother, a hardworking and good mother tried her best to get him stop steaing, shoplifting, and bullying. The Spokane school district tried as well to get him to behave like a civilized human being. Finally, a juvenile judge sent him to MSBR and he became my student and I provided social services for his family, which meant I taught his mother and siblings life skills, coached them on how to react to the Kid, and how to seek help when they needed it.

Over time, I began to understand his language and the things about which he wrote. I became so impressed, I took some of his work to my old college English professor who read it and was dumbfounded. This Kid had talent! My prof and I had read "Down These Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas who "made literary history with this lacerating, lyrical memoir of his coming of age on the streets of Spanish Harlem."

The Kid grew up, graduated from high school and from MSBR. He was building a responsible adulthood. He had great promise.

He was shot robbing a store and died of a bullet wound to his abdomen.